How to enable SSH on ESXi via VSphere client and CLI

For remote troubleshooting or other stuff, you can enable SSH on your VMware ESXi 5.5 host. You can do this on the VMware ESXi host itself or you can do this directly from the VMware vSphere Client as well as using CLI commands as well. Let have a look one by one.

1) On the vSphere Client click on the configuration tab

2) Click on Security Profile , open the Properties tab so you can see the Security Profile properties and the Remote Access services

Select the SSH Service and click on Options. This will open up a new Windows where you can start the SSH service for your VMware ESXi 5.5 host and also set the startup properties.

Try to access your VMware vSphere ESXi host via SSH. If you have any problems to connect you should check the firewall policy as below.

Enable SSH by ROOT and Connecting via CLI

1) Login via Console

2) Have a backup of ssh config file as rename the file as sshd_config.orig

3) Open the ssh config file and edit the file and change the value of PermitRootLogin no to PermitRootLogin yes.

4) Now restart the ssh service by giving the command in the console as